Ghost Rider: Spirit of Boredom

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Boredom

A Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance Review

Hard to know where to start with this one.

A balanced review would weigh up the positives and negatives, but it’s finding the positives that I’m really struggling with.

I like Ghost Rider and I really wanted this film to be good, I really did. I think I was the perfect target audience for this film, as I like comics and the fantasy and adventure that comes with them, but I’m not a massive fanboy of Ghost Rider, so I don’t care how close to the source material they stayed. I also like Nicolas Cage and was a fan of the first film. So if I hated it, what must everyone else think?

Ok let’s start with the aspects I did like. Ghost Rider himself. While not perfect, his CGI and movements were much better than his laughably slow and fake appearance in the first film. The new blackened skull and overall thinner shape made him look much less like a Burger King toy and more demonic. Also the daytime action scenes like the car chase near the end looked great, the colour of the characters standing out nicely against the white skies and backgrounds.

GR 1. Well this is.... different....

GR 2. Much better

GR2 suffers from an unbelievably bad script. The characters have a bizarre lack of depth, it’s horribly paced, I have no idea if it’s a reboot or if they were trying to re- tell the events of the first movie and half the movie just seemed a pointless showing off of visual effects. Take this classic scene for example- Blackout, the ‘decaying’ and er…. ‘darkness’ villain tries to eat a sandwich which keeps rotting in his hands, until he figures out he can just hold the wrapper. And what is this insightful scene meant to tell us? I don’t remember having a burning desire to know how a villain’s death and rebirth as a poison monster would affect his nutrition. More a sign that the two brainbox directors wanted to boost their running time, or that they don’t have a clue what they’re doing. Take your pick.

The performances were bizarre, especially Nic Cage. Ok, I think I can see where he was trying to go with the whole John Blaze has cut himself off from humanity for a while so he’s lost some of his social skills. But there are different levels of eccentricity. There’s OTT, then there’s Nicolas Cage OTT, then there’s Boris Johnson, and then there’s Nic Cage in Ghost Rider 2 OTT. I preferred the socially awkward but normal Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider 1 to this weirdo. Why was he craving drugs and flirting with the random nurse in the hospital, five seconds after waking up? Why does he shout in an even more bizarre and cringe worthy way than his death scene in Kick-Ass? Only NC will ever know. I’m also afraid that Idris Elba’s performance won’t help his career as the ridiculous drunk monk, although I’m sure some of the blame for awful performances can be shifted to the poor script and directors.

Entirely necessary of course

If anyone has seen Crank then I don’t need to tell you that GR2 is by the same directors. You already know because Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor don’t know how to make any other kind of movie. I can just imagine first day on set, “Ok guys so we’re gonna make this movie really cool and awesome by blowing s&*t up and having loads of CGI and pointless camera effects! Story? Realism? Engagement? No, no, no let’s make it really high adrenaline! With the same laughable tricks and gimmicks we used in Crank!’  I mean most of the effects were just pathetic and unnecessary, like the over excessive amount of times Johnny was partly transformed and the camera would just freak out and Nicolas Cage would run round like an idiot. And of course it was entirely necessary for him to ‘ghostify’ half a construction site and shoot chains out of his mouth. Or piss fire. Twice.

Ghost Rider's strange reaction to a curry

I’m going to stop the review there, as there’s plenty more I could rant about but I have better things to do, like try and erase the movie from my head by making a deal with the devil, or Roarke, or Mephisto, or whatever they’re calling him now. Oh and did I read somewhere that it was in 3D? Because it’s not. Even with the glasses on it’s just 2D, in fact if anyone can take their glasses off during that film and find a section that is actually different please let me know because I didn’t see any scenes with the added depth of 3D. Actually no, don’t waste your time going to see it!

Pros: Ghost Rider looked better, nice settings

Cons: Everything else

Overall: 1/5